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Di Pietro, corruption and Clean Hands JUST
Response interviews Domenico Pacitti JUST
Response:
Can
you tell us something about the "Clean Hands" initiative
in Italy in the early nineties and why the opportunity to improve
the transparency and accountability of civil servants failed? Domenico Pacitti:
Operation Clean Hands, or “Mani Pulite”, which took off in
1992, basically revealed that Italy’s political parties were
being illegally financed by industry and that it was only the tip
of an enormous iceberg of political corruption. The phenomenon was
christened "Tangentopoli", or "Bribesville",
by the Italian press. Well, this and worse had always been going
on but politicians were now becoming rather careless. Pacitti: The operation was actually conducted by a
group of magistrates in Milan headed by a man called Francesco
Saverio Borrelli – but the dominant member of the group was, as
you say, Di Pietro. Over 2,500 people, mainly politicians and
business administrators, suddenly found themselves facing an array
of corruption charges. Di Pietro became a sort of overnight
national hero but predictably his success was short-lived. Clean
Hands had taken politicians by surprise but they soon got their
act together and closed ranks. By 1995 there was strong
cross-party political agreement that Clean Hands would just have
to stop before everyone ended up in prison – and it did. The
tables were turned on Di Pietro and 27 criminal charges were
raised against him. Pacitti: Di Pietro has always insisted that he
resigned on his own initiative in order to face charges
honourably. He was, in fact, eventually cleanly acquitted on all
of them, after which he decided to enter politics. JUST Response:
How did Di Pietro enter politics? Pacitti: At first he was courted by the political
right and even by Berlusconi in person but Di Pietro always seems
to have had something of a gut hatred for Berlusconi. I think Di
Pietro saw and still does see Berlusconi as a sort of symbol of
everything he has always fought against. Eventually he opted for
the left, accepting former premier Massimo D’Alema's invitation
to stand for election and so Di Pietro became a senator. JUST Response:
And how did Italians react to this? Pacitti: Well, understandably, Italians were
disappointed and they suspected that this had been Di Pietro’s
intention all along and that Clean Hands had been politically
rather than judicially motivated. Di Pietro began to be perceived
as having betrayed his mission. This was very seriously aggravated
by the systematically adverse media portrayal of both Clean Hands
and Di Pietro himself. He went on to found his own “Italia dei
Valori", [Italy of Values] movement, but Italians had largely
abandoned him. Pacitti: Yes. I first met Di Pietro in Rome
about two-and-a-half years ago where we did a long televised
interview together. It was during the run-up to the Italian
national elections and I was on commission for the Times Higher
Education Supplement in London. It was published in two
articles. One appeared in the Times Higher under the title
"Running on a clean-up ticket", the other in the
Brussels-based journal World Parliamentarian – "Face
of revolution". Di Pietro agreed to meet me and suggested the
televised interview as a sort of friendly exchange. JUST Response:
What was your impression of Di Pietro? Pacitti: Well the first thing that struck me was that
the members of his own entourage seemed nervous in his presence.
Di Pietro wouldn't stand for any nonsense and always insisted in
talking straight and acting with the utmost attention to legal and
moral factors, which is pretty unusual in any Italian sphere let
alone in politics. At one point this caused some tension with one
of Di Pietro's associates and one of his closest advisers turned
to me and said: "You know, he really is like this." I
soon sensed that he was not likely to get very far in the
elections, basically because he spoke a different language from
other Italian politicians. JUST Response:
And what language was that? Pacitti: The truth. JUST Response:
So you wouldn't doubt Di Pietro's good intentions or integrity? Pacitti: Quite frankly, I’ve never seen any reason
to doubt either his good intentions or his sincere belief in
justice as an absolute value. On the other hand, he always lacked
sufficient political backing to have any real chance of
transforming Italy. Italians knew this all along and followed
Clean Hands as a sort of theatrical tragi-comedy that had to end
sooner or later. Nor has Di Pietro ever been completely convincing
as an Italian politician, which is in a sense the highest
compliment one can pay him. The presence in parliament of a man
who was genuinely concerned with justice was about as fitting as
an iron girder in a doll’s house. Pacitti: It certainly was. It struck at the
very heart of corruption in Italy in the form of the entire ruling
class of politicians. And the main reason it failed is because
justice has always been anathema to Italy’s Machiavellian,
grossly overpaid politicians – like holy water to the devil as
an Italian saying puts it. The effects of the operation have now
been almost completely annulled and many of the politicians who
were arrested and imprisoned have not only been fully
rehabilitated but are actually back in parliament right now. Italy
under Berlusconi is now well and truly back to square one and all
forms of corruption are once again rampant. JUST Response:
Is Di Pietro still very active?
Pacitti:
Oh yes. He's still battling away for all the good causes and seems
set on becoming a minister in a centre-left coalition at the next
elections. JUST Response:
Do you think he will succeed? Pacitti: I fear he might. JUST Response:
Why
do you say "fear"? Pacitti: Because that could only mean serious
compromise on Di Pietro's part, given the total unacceptability by
any Italian political party of the values he is trying to promote. Note: This interview appeared in JUST Response on August 26 2003. |
